- A lawsuit against the Department of Justice will be heard April 23
- Federal government based its decision on an international law ruling
- Germany fines parents for home schooling and can revoke custody rights
- An estimated 2 million children in the US are home schooled
That's the magic number that the Obama administration says will trigger an official review and a formal response. The total currently stands are more than 111,000.
'Every state in the United States of America recognizes the right to homeschool,' reads the petition filed by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), 'and the U.S. has the world's largest and most vibrant homeschool community. Regrettably, this family faces deportation in spite of the persecution they will suffer in Germany.'
That group sued the Department of Justice after a judge in the DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review ruled that Uwe and Hannelore Romeike's earlier grant of asylum should be revoked.
An estimated 2 million children in the US are home schooled, including the five out of six of the Romeikes' children who are school-age. Hannelore Romeike is pregnant and expecting her seventh child in June.
But the practice of teaching children at home instead of in government-run schools is illegal in Germany. An estimated 200 families teach their own children there anyway, even at the risk of fines, criminal prosecution and, in some cases, the loss of custody of their children.
'The public expects the White House to explain the inexplicable,' said the HSLDA's Michael Farris. 'In a season where the Administration has expressed leniency for millions of undocumented immigrants, we are baffled by the extreme attitudes toward this one German family.'
Uwe Romeike appeared on the Mike Huckabee Show on the Fox News Channel, saying about the petition that 'the most important thing about this is that the government sees that not only are we interested in getting asylum, but the American people in general stand behind this case.'
'It's all about freedom for parents to decide on their children's education,' he said.
But Professor David Abraham of the University of Miami Law School argued Friday on Fox that home-schooling isn't a basic human right, and that the Romeike family isn't entitled to stay in the United States.
'Home schooling may be a good idea. It may be a bad idea. It's a public policy question,' Abraham said.
'Not having home schooling is not being persecuted. Asylum is about persecution.'
'They are not getting something they would like,' he insisted. "that's true for people everywhere, and that's why we have legislatures.'
The 'We The People' petition system was a creation of the Obama administration. In its original form, petitioners were required to collect 5,000 signatures to guarantee a White House response. That cutoff was quickly raised to 25,000.
The administration raised the bar again, to require 100,000 signatures, in December.
...will governments realise that that they do not own Children. Parents are the primary caregivers of their Children and they are in a position to make decisions about how their Children are educated.
Much Peace...